Miranda Cosgrove

TV Tips Jan. 5: Live to Dance, People’s Choice Awards, Primetime

People's Choice Awards, 9 p.m., CBS

"Queen Latifah hosts a ceremony honoring favorites in the fields of music, movies and TV, based on results of a viewer poll; at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles." I texted tons of votes for Miranda Cosgrove. Also, did you see Queen Latifah on 30 Rock as the spotlight-hogging senator? Holy smokes that was funny.

Miranda Taylor Cosgrove (born May 14, 1993) is a American film and television actress and pop recording artist. Cosgrove played the roles of Megan Parker in Drake & Josh and title character in iCarly. Her career started at the age of three, participating in television commercials. Cosgrove's film debut was in 2003, as Summer Hathaway in School of Rock.

After years of small television appearances, Cosgrove was cast into the hit show Drake & Josh and later in iCarly. Cosgrove earns $180,000 per episode of iCarly, making her the second highest paid child star on television.

Following the success of iCarly, a soundtrack album was released in June 2008, in which she performed four songs. Cosgrove's debut album Sparks Fly was released on April 27, 2010; The Matrix, Dr. Luke, and Espionage worked with her on it.

Life and career

Early life and acting interest

Cosgrove was born in Los Angeles, California to Tom, who owns a dry cleaning business, and Chris, a stay-at-home mother. At the age of three, she was discovered by a talent agent while singing and dancing at the Los Angeles restaurant Taste of L.A. Cosgrove stated that when the agent walked up to her and her mom for modeling, she had "never really thought of being an [actress]" and "was lucky". After choosing to take the offer, she appeared in television commercials for McDonald's and Mello Yello, and also modeled.At the age of seven, Cosgrove decided that "[she] loved doing it" and auditioned for theater and television roles.

2001–2006: Rise to fame

Cosgrove's first television appearance was in 2001 as a 5-year old Lana Lang in the pilot of Smallville. Cosgrove then made her film debut with the 2003 film School of Rock. In the movie, she played Summer Hathaway, a young girl with great ambition and discipline who finds herself adjusting to the free-spirited nature of the new teacher by becoming band manager of classroom's rock band. School of Rock was both a box office hit, grossing over $131,282,949 worldwide, and critical success, receiving a 91 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes.[9] Cosgrove's acting on the film was praised with David Ansen of Newsweek describing it as "spot on".[10] She said of the experience of working with Jack Black: "The first week it was like, 'Oh, my God, that's Jack Black,' but two weeks later it was fine. He's really funny. Sometimes the director would say, 'Jack you can't make them laugh so much.'"She cited the scene as trying to sing wrong as very difficult. Cosgrove stated that "I got a 45-minute lesson from Jim O'Rourke of Sonic Youth on how to sing badly. I've been taking singing lessons for about five years, so getting to sing badly was new. The director kept saying, 'Try to sing even worse, Miranda,' so it was weird."

She is grateful she was in School of Rock, as it exposed her to classic rock songs she was unfamiliar with. "After the movie," said Cosgrove, "I discovered Led Zeppelin and I've taken up the electric guitar".

While filming School of Rock in New York City, Cosgrove was informed that the pilot for Drake & Josh had been picked up. In the series, she portrayed the mischievous sister of the title character, Megan Parker. The show made its debut on January 11, 2004 and drew positive responses in ratings. Cosgrove said this about show: "It's like a big family. We know each other so well, nothing is embarrassing anymore....It's really comfortable, and it's really fun." While on the show, she was able to develop a partnership with Dan Schneider, known for producing various Nickelodeon shows (Zoey 101, The Amanda Show, Drake & Josh, Kenan & Kel, All That, etc.). He would go on to help create iCarly.